‘Tropical vines are wandering, as they always have, but recent environmental changes are giving them an edge over other rainforest plants—a shift that could have enduring impacts on climates around the globe…’

–via bioGraphic

In short, woody vines evolved from trees, exploiting the advantage of not having to support their own weight by using adjacent trees to support them. Under the thrust of climate change, they are increasingly supplanting trees because they are more efficient at transporting water and finding sunlight . The worrisome thing is that they are less efficient at carbon fixation, so in a vicious circle their growth will accelerate climate change in measurable ways.

James Harbeck argues the English language would be better off without them:

• Most of them dont add anything useful.
• George Bernard Shaw did it and so can you.
• Many apostrophes are really only there for condescension (I found this his most interesting argument)
• Even when an apostrophe can add something sueful, we usually get by without it.
• They add confusion.
• Eliminating them would free them up for use as single quotes.
• It will make the rules better.

— via The Week

I rarely use apostrophes when Im typing text messages, but thats mostly because the spell checker usually adds them. And, when it doesnt, its no loss. Except to my snobbery about ‘writing right.’

(Now, on the other hand, dont get me started about the Oxford comma.)